The older I become, the more I realize that drawing is the most important of all the problems of picture-making.
- Joaquin Sorolla

Art is, after all, only a trace — like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.
- Robert Henri

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Petar Meseldžija

Petar Meseldžija is a Serbian artist who started in comics, publishing a comic called Krampi in the comic magazine Stripoteka and working on a short licensed Tarzan series.

He then went on to study painting at the Art Academy in Novi Sad and began to take on illustration work, eventually abandoning comics for illustration and gallery painting.

Meseldžija works in a fantasy vein; his atmospheric and highly textured visions of other worlds have tactile presence and lively energy.

He frequently seems to control space with areas of the canvas, both objects and negative space, blocked out by dominant areas of color, within which there are more subtle variations.

His online galleries showcase both his illustration and gallery art.

His gallery paintings also often take on a fantasy motif, with touches of beautifully handled classical drapery and dramatic lighting. You will also find more traditional portraits and still life subjects as well as some nicely immediate and painterly landscapes.

There is now a book on my work!
It is an oversized (40 x 29 cm / 16 x 11 1/2 inch), luxurious, 48 page book.
It has been published a few weeks ago in Serbia. Within a few days (according to my webmaster) the information about this book will be posted on my website.

What a fantastic service to those of us who love illustrations (and illustrators), new and old.

I’m a freelance book cover artist (my clients include HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Ballistic Media, American Media, Fort Ross, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and many others), and I suspect you and your readers might be interested in the collection of my illustrations I have online at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html